I ran my college station and forced even the most die-hard southern rock DJ’s to spin it. It should have been a smash here (it peaked at #6 in The UK) and sounded spectacular on the air. Her first album for him was great, and the lead single ‘It’s In His Kiss’, even greater and a real chance for her to flex the higher range potential of that voice. For once, Clive Davis seemed to be in step with what I’d have done if I were running the label, make Linda Lewis a star in The US. Unfortunately, I was right.īy 1975, she’d left Raft and Reprise for Arista. I was well pleased to get a US promo later that fall, but had no hopes I’d ever hear it on American radio, despite Reprise releasing it twice. She looked super hot on TOP OF THE POPS, like an English Kim Weston or Tammi Terrell, but with a voice much closer to Minnie Riperton. Or maybe just because it sounded so good over the air, like in my case, coming out of a 4″ x 6″ green transistor radio (that era’s version of a hand held device), permanently borrowed off my cousin. If you were there you’d know, it was played relentlessly for weeks and weeks, almost like Radio 1 wanted to make it sell. Linda Lewis had a mid-chart UK hit with ‘Rock A Doodle Doo’ during the summer of ’73 (#15). That’s another way of saying that while Lead Belly is one of the first-known artists to record this tune, it actually predates him to the degree that its exact point of origin cannot be ascertained. Posted in Barbara Lewis, Betty Everett, Bill Withers, Dennis Coffey, Jackie Wilson, Sandi Sheldon, Sussex, The Presidents, Van McCoy | Comments Off Facts about Black Betty The credited writers of this song are Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter, 1888-1949) and Traditional. Tags: Barbara Lewis, Betty Everett, Bill Withers, Dennis Coffey, Jackie Wilson, Sandi Sheldon, Sussex, The Presidents, Van McCoy But truth be told, the fellow wrote some perfect songs: ‘Baby I’m Yours’ for Barbara Lewis, ‘Getting Mighty Crowded’ by Betty Everett, ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’, the Northern Soul holy grail recorded by Sandi Sheldon and ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ for Jackie Wilson. Within a few years though, producer Van McCoy got tarnished with the disco curse, simply for having too big of a hit, ‘The Hustle’. For me, just knowing a Sussex single was spinning on some 16″ industrial Gates radio station turntable made it sound that much better. Logically both the Top 40′s and the RnB locals were playing it, but so too were the college stations. Seemed like no time passed before the record was literally all over the air. Turns out it’s a one listen song, simple. Given I’d previously owned only Dennis Coffey and Bill Withers records on Sussex, I assumed the best when this came along.
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